About Tom Ossendrijver
My Work Showcase
About the recent times, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a number of incredible projects that have allowed me to gain knowlegde and establish myself within the competitive industry of the technical world. I hope you’ll enjoy viewing my projects as much as I enjoyed working on them. Go ahead and explore, don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to learn more about it.
Professional History
My Experience
Insyte Technology
Sep 2021 - Present
Embedded systems engineering at Insyte Technology
Embedded system engineer at Celsius Benelux B.V.
Embedded systems engineering at Celsius Benelux B.V.
February 2021 - June 2021
Embedded system engineer at CERN
Embedded system engineering at CERN
Aug 2019 - Feb 2020
Administrative Office Assistant at ABN AMRO Bank
Administrative work at ABN AMRO Bank N.V.
July 2017 - March 2019
Horeca employee (temporary internship)
Activities: washing dishes, cleaning the kitchen, preparational work for the cook.
February 2014 - May 2014
Guide
July 2013Â - July 2018
Guiding and helping children with all kinds of jobs and games at the construction camp during the summer holidays.
Trainer at Football club SV Achterveld
Training with the F2 pupils.
Septemer 2013Â - May 2014
Want to learn more? Contact me for more information about my experience.
Academic Projects
Portfolio of Work
UWB based Real-time indoor location system for Comfortkey positioning solution
During the last semester, we've got to find a graduation internship. This to show we've got the knowledge and experience needed to graduate as a professional embedded systems engineer. During covid-19 I was happy to find an interesting internship at Celsius Benelux B.V. The assignment was about the creation of a real-time indoor locating system based on ultra-wideband technology.
The results:
- Knowledge about UWB is obtained
- The system can communicate by means of UWB
- The system can obtain distance values between tags and anchors
- The system can communicate with multiple tags
- Hardware is developed for integration of the anchor with the IMS and Comfortkey positioning system
- The system can determine the location of a tag by means of trilateration
- Proof of concept that the application of the UWB technology can result in a precision of +/- 10 cm
Overall, the goal to realize a proof of concept has been realized and the research question of the company "How can we improve the accuracy of a location measurement to detect beacons with a precision of +/- 50 cm in a building, with the Integrated multi sensor of the company Celsius Benelux B.V. without draining the battery life of beacons so they can last for at least ½ year?" has been solved.
Project
Game: "Tomtom space adventure"
During quartile one of semester seven, I started studying the pre-master interaction technology at the University of Twente. This quartile, I got the assignment to create a video game, to get more knowledge about interactive media. This project fitted well with the lessons. The lessons were about game designing, 3D modelling, game engine technology's, VR & AR, sound engineering, animating and professional development.
During this quartile, I learned to create 3D models in Maya, rigging, painting, animating, designing, creating sounds, usage of Unity, basics of VR, C# scripting and in general became more creative and better in thinking from different points of view.
Project
Remote Monitoring Trucks
During semester six, we've got lessons about IoT, databases and digital signal processing. This project we were able to choose our own. I've selected this project because back at CERN I mostly developed hardware and was interested to learn more about software and apply the knowledge obtained during the lessons. The purpose during this project was to create an IoT solution for automotive applications. The goal was to develop an automotive IoT solution prototype that is developable by people with limited programming knowledge. The system uses an Owa43A device as its processing unit and can be programmed with the help of Node-RED and a custom library of Node-RED nodes to ease programming. The results:
- The system can do measurements and display these on a dashboard
- The system can connect to the internet and switch smartly between Wi-Fi and 3G/4G
- The Owa4x API library has been translated to custom Node-RED nodes
- It is possible to connect to the system from a distance at all times by using a VPN and SSH connection
-Â It is possible to program the system even with limited programming knowledge.
Overall, the goal to realize an IoT monitoring solution which is easy to develop by automotive students without low level coding knowledge, has been realized.
Design of the QPS crate controller Data acquisition board
Fifth semester, we've got to find an internship to get working experience in the field of the embedded systems. We were allowed to choose our own internship address, and personally I was really interested to do my internship abroad, this to earn knowledge from multiple cultural aspects, become more independent and more used to communicating in a foreign language. I came in contact with the company CERN, who allowed me to join their wonderful team. During the internship I got the assignment to design a data acquisition board for the protection of worlds strongest magnets. The assignment contained the following description:
"Contemporary Quench Protection Systems (QPS) employ high performance mixed signals
electronics systems. This approach enables to apply cutting-edge instrumentation to a
superconducting infrastructure, which is especially required for recent developments applied in
this field. The growing interest in the high definition data for operational events analysis and
predictive maintenance requires advances in the data throughput and timing accuracy. A current
endeavour aims on enabling of QPS units for test infrastructures of superconducting devices to
provide data bandwidth required for an accurate characterization of tested devices. The main
objective of the project is to design a QPS system controller card, which incorporates a high
performance 32-bit microcontroller, an external RAM and an Ethernet interface. Therefore, it is
expected from a successful candidate to perform a whole design cycle of a PCB, and subsequently
to develop firmware that enables to verify the implementation of key components."
​
During this internship I learned working together with people from all around the world. Further, learned how to select key components, making schematic card designs, realize PCB designs, assembly processes, developing of firmware and creating professional detailed documentation. The internship was finished with a nine as final mark, this all was an amazing, unforgettable experience.
​
Project
The e-colt rally car
Fourth semester, we've got lessons on programming in C++, usage of VHDL and operating systems. This time we were able to choose our own project. Because I learned a lot theoretically, I liked to work on a more practical project in something I’ve never done before. This is when I met Toin Peters and Johan Brussen. They were busy with building an electrical driven rally car and I thought electrical driving will be the future. That’s why I like to have more knowledge of this subject and choose it as my next project. Our purpose in this project was to create a safe electrical rally car. To realize this there is a need to create a battery management system (BMS), an emergency button, some schematics and cables that can withstand the high currents. To realize this, we work with two kind of disciplines, namely with Industrial power system engineers and Embedded software engineers. In this project I focus on creating the BMS, dividing the task over the disciplines and controlling the schedule. What I learned of this project so far, is managing people, usage of can bus systems, safety precautions and communicating with different kind of cultures.
Project
The smart photo frame
Third semester, we've got a lot of lessons about electrical circuits, data communication protocols and the usage of a PID controller. Because we’ve got the option to choose our own project, I started looking for a project with one of these subjects in it. On a project day at school I met Hans Elias of the company Genus Care BV. He had the mission to develop a smart photo frame that was able to monitor, connect and alert people. I became interested in it and started talking with him. I immediately was convinced that I needed to do this project, because it would be a big challenge for me and it had some of the learned subjects in it. In this project our target was to design the photo frame, monitor the user and send the received data to the connected devices. To realize this there was a need for industrial product designers, electrical engineers and electronical engineers. In this project I focused on the software for the communication of the devices and the hardware to use for the specifications of the design. In this project I learned to work together with different kinds of disciplines, and I learned about the usage of all sort of components, about ways to communicate between devices, to move myself in someone else and about certain rights to keep in mind.
Project
The baby incubator
Second semester, I had to choose between the two branches Industrial power systems and Embedded software engineering. Personally, I liked programming most. Therefore I had chosen for the embedded system branch. Then I came in touch with the baby incubator project. The main target was to build a lightweight functional incubator. To realize this there was a need for software engineers and mechanical engineers. The task for me was to make a functional controlling system to choose the temperature and the amount of moist inside of the incubator and try to keep it as constant as possible by the usage of a watch dog. In this project I learned to work together with different kind of disciplines and I learned to use the Keil uVision development tool.
Project
The robocar
When I started with my education Electrical and electronical engineering I had almost none experience in the technical field. This was till the moment we started with a project called the robocar. The entire idea of this project was to learn the technical basics like programming and building schematics. The group existed of four people. That’s why we decided to split up into two teams: one software team and one hardware team. I was on the software team and I immediately fell in love with programming. That’s why I decided to go for the branch embedded software engineering. In this project I learned how to program microcontrollers, learned how to build electronical circuits and I learned trouble shooting.
Project collection
project
Social robot design
Developed a social robot to research human-robot interaction, focusing on the robot's expression, embodiment, and behavior. The project explored how these elements influence user engagement and the emotional connection between humans and robots.
project
Artificial Intelligence & Cyber Security NIDS
Created a Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) to analyze all traffic between an internal network and the internet. The system was designed to detect and alert on suspicious activities, enhancing network security by identifying potential threats.
Project
Roomba
The entire idea of this side project is learning how IOT works. I did connect a Raspberry pi to the internal microcontroller of the Roomba. They will communicate in a serial way. Besides I did write a code for the Pi that will react on certain messages sent over the internet. To realize this, I did use a could based broker where the Pi is subscribed on and publish to the broker with a cetain topic from an external device like my mobile phone or laptop.
project
Developed a real-time system to insert virtual ads into sports broadcasts
Developed a real-time system for inserting virtual ads into sports broadcasts, a great blend of computer vision and practical application. Detected field boundaries using the Hough Transform with morphological filtering, and used the KLT algorithm to track moving field corners for stable ad placement. Calibrated the camera to correct perspective distortion using intrinsic and extrinsic parameters. To improve performance, I applied Gaussian pre-filtering and skeletonization. The system was implemented in MATLAB using the Computer Vision Toolbox, with version control on GitHub.
project
Virtual reality environment for vulnerable groups
Developed a virtual reality environment tailored for vulnerable groups to test multisensory attentional cues in individuals with intellectual disabilities. The environment was designed to provide a controlled space for exploring sensory interactions and their impact on attention and focus, aiming to improve cognitive support strategies.
project
Sports technology
Conceptualized a technology to aid motor learning in expert mountain bikers, focusing on biomechanics (posture) to help them navigate novel obstacles during training. The system utilized peer modeling to enhance learning by mimicking and adapting techniques from skilled riders, improving performance and technique refinement.
project
Twitter chatbot
Developed a Twitter chatbot as a conversational agent with linguistic alignment, designed to adapt its language style to mirror the user, making interactions feel more natural and human-like. This project combined elements of computational linguistics, dialogue systems, and social media integration.
project
Dance dance revolution
Developed an interactive dance game in Unity that uses both hand and foot tracking, a fun project where programming, design, and human-computer interaction came together. Focused on creating an intuitive and engaging experience by blending motion input with responsive game mechanics and playful visuals.
project
Augmented reality
Created 3D models and animations for augmented reality applications in Unity, combining creative design with technical implementation. Focused on optimizing models for performance and clarity in AR environments, and added animations to enhance interactivity and user engagement.
project
FPGA softcore
During my studies, I built a Nios II softcore processor system in Quartus Prime, a super fun deep dive into both hardware and software. I designed custom components in VHDL, wrote C firmware, and tested everything using UART and blinking LEDs (because what’s an FPGA project without blinking LEDs?). This project really sparked my love for digital design, especially thanks to my amazing signal processing teacher, who loved sharing his knowledge and fueled my interest even further by gifting me his personal FPGA board for my own development.
Recently I've been diving deeper into the world of FPGA development, exploring testbench creation in VHDL using GHDL, visualizing waveforms with GTKWave, and even setting up CI/CD pipelines in GitLab for simulation-based regression testing.
Project
Running arch linux on a raspberry pi
I have got lectures in operating systems and wanted to bring some of the earned knowledge inside of the playfield. I bought a 16 GB SD card and did partition it. 100 mb of is used for the boot (partition type: w95 FAT32) and the other 15,9 GB is used for the root (partition type: default). After partitioning I mounted the partitions and installed the base system on to the SD card. Now i have a SD card that can boot a bare Arch Linux ARM system on a Raspberry Pi.
Project
Reading data from thingspeak
At the time of the smart photo frame project I was busy with the communication between two WI-FI modules. My commissioner showed me some of his cool projects, and I became inspired by it. That’s why I decided to make a little application to read out the humidity and temperature from the DHT-11 sensor and display it on a site where I would be able to read it from another location. This is when I found Thingspeak. There were a lot of tutorials online for usage and because I was playing around with the WI-FI module I became a bit more familiar with it. Later on this turned out to be handy by dealing with the photo frame project.
Project
Esp8266 deather
At the time of the baby incubator I didn't have any side project. A project in the past was controlling a led over Wi-Fi by using an esp-8266 and by coincidence I still had this module at home and became interested in the available application for usage. On the site Instructables.com I found a project that showed how to turn off the Wi-Fi of certain devices. This project was made to show the flaws of the Wi-Fi (802.11) standard and draw more attention towards this issue. This is because there is already a solution, but companies aren't using it yet. That’s why I made the deauther and it worked, which means the people of this project on Instructables.com were right and this proved me that even nowadays these flaws aren't fixed yet.
Project
Designing a circuit board
We've got lessons in Altium Printed Circuit Board (PCB) designing. After the completion of this course I was allowed to bring the theoretically earned knowledge into practice with a side project to create a little flashlight.
Project
Controlling a led over WI-Fi
At the time of the robocar project we were thinking about different ways to control it. The first idea was just to make a controller and connect a cable between the car and the controller. But how cool would it be when you can use Wi-Fi and your own created app to control the car. We all agreed and decided to start to realize this idea, but beforehand I needed to understand the basics for the usage of a Wi-Fi module. That's why I did a little side project by following an online tutorial.
Project
Desining a GUI
Starting with my education we learned programming in C, and we needed to show what we had learned of it. Therefore it was required to build a Graphical User Interface (GUI). The entire idea behind it was to make a GUI for a coffee machine. That’s why I started to make a basic program in which you can choose coffee and pay for it. Later on, after some lessons in C, I gained more knowledge and decided to improve the code and add certain kinds of additions to it. Such as an administrator menu that will allow you to empty, refill and change the price of the coffee. Also, I added some visibility futures and different kind of coffees. I really liked this side project and learned a lot about C programming.
Project
Brain computer interfacing.
Developed a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) that enabled users to control a video game using brain waves. By capturing EEG signals and applying signal processing techniques, we translated brainwave patterns into game commands. This project combined neural signal interpretation with game development, exploring the potential of BCIs for hands-free interaction.
"I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work"